Billionaire's Portfolio

This morning Mnuchin was interviewed by CNBC.  He was the headline of the day, despite saying nothing new.

When trade talks broke down in early May, the Trump administration said they were 90% of the way to a deal.  But China balked and reneged on concessions.   Mnuchin said the same thing today (we were 90% there), and the media presented it as if he said progress was made this week, heading into the meetings. That’s not what he said.

Let’s talk about the backdrop heading into the weekend negotiations.  Remember, Trump is in the driver’s seat in this negotiation.  He can’t force a good deal, but he can claim victory on the trade front just by doing ‘a’ deal.

With that in mind, as we’ve discussed over the past month, he seems to be attempting to surgically optimize the economy heading into next year’s election.  He’s been fighting for a Fed rate cut, and through introducing heightened risks of a standstill on trade, he’s gotten what looks like Fed compliance coming down the pike (for a July cut).

The timeline set up perfectly for a June rate cut, and then for Trump to settle on a China deal at the G20 meeting.  The economy would have launched like a rocket-ship.  The Fed didn’t comply.

With that, at this weekends Trump/Xi meeting, let’s see if Trump extends the timeline on new tariffs, to get through the July Fed meeting (in hopes of getting his Fed fuel for the economy).   At this point, the market has backed the Fed into the corner, with high expectations of not just 25 bps, but a 50 bps cut.  Without an extension of trade uncertainty, those expectations will sustain if not grow.

Now, we’ve discussed over the past month, the prospects for this trade war with China ending with a grand and coordinated currency agreement — perhaps a big depreciation of the dollar, similar to the 80s “Plaza Accord.”

As I said a couple of weeks ago, we may wake up one day and find a similar agreement has been made between the U.S. and major global trading partners (which may include China, or not).  It might be a deal between the U.S. and China to “revalue” the yuan (i.e. strengthen it).  Or it may exclude China (just G3 economies).  An interesting takeaway from this morning’s interview with Mnuchin:  Mnuchin did make a point to emphasize that they look forward to many bi-lateral meetings at the G-20 — not just with China.

How do you position for a dollar devaluation?  Buy commodities.  Is that what the move in gold is telling us (and Bitcoin)?  Maybe.

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